Tag: blanket

I started a simple but beautiful blanket pattern a few months ago for my soon to be five year old. I used Woolf of the Andes superwash wool from Knitpicks. Then I finished it! Finally! I trimmed the loose pieces and sewed in bits. I had to wash it because when we returned from our road trip it was covered in cat hair and had dried cat vomit.

I put it in the washer machine carefully. I set it to gentle and came back a few hours later. I was hanging it over the banister and I saw a huge hole right smack in the middle. I walked away and cried and cried. When I told the husband I had destroyed $180 of yarn and months of my time, he asked if I knit it too loosely. 😡

When I woke the next day, I posted it in a Facebook group and they suggested I knit bottom up and graft it in. It worked.

It’s another week on and I’m on my sixth skein of yarn with the maxi-cosi blanket. I drastically under ordered yarn for this project but luckily Knitpicks is having a sale on Wool of the Andes bulky in this color. I also picked up brown yarn for the next blanket. The blanket is no longer confused for a scarf but I have a long, long way to go.

In case you haven’t figured it out, I spend quite a bit of time knitting blankets. Big blankets, small blankets, they are familiar and useful here in South Florida. I want to knit my kids things and they’d fry in wool sweaters.

I knit the last few blankets in inexpensive acrylic yarn and I’m not happy with the quality or the outcome. My cables in the pink blanket look terrible.

I purchased 11 skeins of Knitpicks wool of the Andes superwash – which will be not even close to enough yarn 😭. Nobody tell the husband what that actually costs. I usually use a seed stitch or blocks but I really like this pattern on Ravelry for the Maxi Cosi Blanket. It’s a simple pattern which I find easier with big blankets.

It’s been two years since I’ve posted. The last time I posted, I had finished my Masters in Accounting, passed all four parts of the CPA, gotten my license and was working on getting my foster license. I had made so many baby hats, sweaters, blankets and toys that my head spun but was completely unprepared for the two year journey of fostering and adopting three young children.

I have yet to knit a sweater for any of them, but have a few blankets and now three scarves and a hat.

Living in Florida has not helped my knitting will power. I’ve found that I’ve lost all motivation to knit more than socks and blankets. More so blankets. It doesn’t help that I seem to be consummately busy which makes focusing on complicated patterns more difficult. I have not posted in several years and I’ve been averaging a blanket a year. So here we go again.

One was a baby blanket for the kid pictured above. I guess I didn’t take a picture of it.

The second was a queen size blanket made of Bernat Cotton – which is more comfortable in Florida.

I knit the majority of this during a time of personal emotional turmoil. For about two weeks, I would knit row and row in a fury trying not to think. We survived and it’s not easy focusing on a 350 stitch row one after another.

I started blanket number two a few months ago with the intention of giving it to baby above – which I decided against because all of a sudden we don’t have enough blankets in our home. It’s the same pattern but flecked with pink and purpose instead of green and orangish. This one fits a twin size bed easily and I finished it 1 year from the date I finished the queen size blanket (thanks TimeHop App!).

One of the first things that you learn when you begin knitting, is that when working on a project, make sure you have enough to finish it. Patterns tell you how many skeins you’ll need or at least usually how many yards. It’s better to have more yarn than necessary that not enough. It’s also best to have enough of the same color lot so that you don’t have those pesky differences in shading. Normally, when yarn is made, the dye is created and all of yarn is made with that/those colors. For example, XYZ wool dyes 200 skeins of purple wool on Tuesday. On Thursday, it will dye 200 more skeins of wool. Those two dye lots are going to be a tiny bit different, no matter what. So, if you want to knit your purple sweater, it’s best to get all your yarn out of one dye lot to make sure the front and back (or top and bottom) are the same shade of purple.

With this in mind, you have to know what you are using your yarn for before you buy it. I had bought about 6 skeins of Paton’s Baby yarn about a year ago when my friend was pregnant. I made a small baby blanket and set the rest aside. A little over a month ago I decided to make another blanket and figured I could go out and find more if I needed it. After all, it is a popular company with yarn available in Michael’s and Jo-Anns. I was at the end of the last skein and went out to find more. Paton’s Beehive Baby Sport Yarn in Natural Girl was nowhere to be found. Rather than keep searching, I decided to finish the blanket early. The border had to be finished in 10 rows rather than 12. All in all, I was lucky and the blanket looks fabulous- but I was lucky. Did I learn my lesson? Absolutely not!

I started knitting away without really knowing what I wanted to do. Before I knew it, I was using left over soft baby yarn and creating a blanket. I am a little less than midway through it, but wanted to post the pattern anyway. People keep asking me who I am knitting it for. My response, “By the time I’m finished, someone will be pregnant.”

I am using Patons Beehive Baby Yarn in 11421 Natural Girl colors. It has tones of pink, blue, beige and white. There is a double seed stitch border, with alternating squares in stockinette and seed stitch.

6 stitches and 8 rows = 1 inch in stockinette

Size 4 circular knitting needle at least 16 inches long. Using stich markers every ten stitches will help keep track of the changes.

I finished a simple baby blanket for my 7 month pregnant co-worker. I was feeling quite lazy after my last few projects and picked the thickest yarn I could find for this. This is made out of James C Brett Marble Chunky (bulky 12 ply yarn), knit up on size 15 needles. The gauge is 12 stitches, 12 rows equals 4 inches by 4 inches.
This is a very simple feather and fan pattern.
Cast on 91 stitches (or in multiples of 18 +1)

Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Row 3 Knit 1, *Knit 2 together three times, Knit 1 Yarn Over 6 times, Knit 2 together three times Repeat from * to end.
Row 4: Knit
Repeat these four rows. It should be about 40 inches wide by 30 inches long. This is a great size for a baby blanket for a bassinett or over a car seat. However, it is a versatile pattern that can be made smaller bigger, wider, longer. I love how simple it is and how fast the project goes.